Birtalan Ágnes: Kalmyk Folklore and Folk Culture in the Mid-19th Century: Philological Studies on the Basis of Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna’s Kalmyk Texts.
INTRODUCTION
withdrawal from academic circles and the shelving of his Mongolian material caused the loss of much important data (informants' comments, places, names, additional remarks to the texts), which makes the interpretation of some texts difficult. Certain sample texts, however, were released by him without fuller explanation or discussion. In his Report Bálint gave examples of Kalmyk folk songs, 5' and in his only recently published Diary, he included one of the texts he called yöräl "Blessing". 5 4. In the Chrestomathy attached to the Grammar numerous samples are included from Bálint's records with English translation and the shorter texts are supplemented with a vocabulary. Below the contents of the Kalmyk (by Bálint Oirat) part of the Chrestomathy in the Grammar are listed by way of information for the readers of the present volume. The result of his field research among the Kalmyks is the text corpus, consisting of 184 pages containing various fields of Kalmyk folklore and folk culture (in detail cf. below in the Content of the Manuscript). The transcription is more elaborate and precise compared with the transcription of the samples and the Chrestomathy of the Grammar. Lajos Gy. Nagy criticised Bálint's transcription for its inaccuracy and compared it unfavourably with Ramstedt's system. 5 5 Ramstedt's transcription system is indeed very meticulous, nevertheless with additional notes and explanation on the usage and the absence or presence of particular letters in the Romanised Kalmyk words, Bálint's transcription can be comprehended as a fairly accurate method. E. g. one the most distinguishing markers of the Kalmyk language among the Mongolian languages and dialects is the strong reduction of vowels in non-initial positions, 5 6 which can be indicated simply by omitting the vowel that is represented in other Mongolian languages. In such cases Bálint often inserted an e, in the position of a schwa, e. g. Bálint äimek , Kaim. ämg, cf. Mong. ayimay, Khal. aimag , marked by Ramstedt with schwa ämdg, äm 3g). The schwa is indicated with an i in words having an i in the first or second syllable: 5 7 Bálint xal'imik , Kaim. xal'mg , xalimg , W.Oir. qalimay. Another important specificity of Bálint's system is that he indicated diphthongs in his texts. The Oirat dialects and Kalmyk lack the primary diphthongs - represented in written Mongolian and written Oirat - and became monophthongised, resulting in a long vowel instead of the diphthong (in non-initial position the long vowels are shortened and sound like short ones): Bálint elme, Kaim. im, Ramstedt im, W.Oir. eyimi, eyimü, cf. Mong. eyimii, Khal. im. Concerning the consonants, Bálint followed the particularity of the written forms in indicating the sound b also in the positions (middle or end of word) where it has already spirantised in spoken Oirat and Kalmyk: Bálint arban yurbun, Kalm. anvn yunvn, W.Oir., Mong. arban yurban, Khal. arwan gurwan. These few examples clearly show the dichotomy of Bálint's transcription system rooted in his recording method. He first asked his informants to write down their texts in Oirat script and then requested them to read it in their own dialect. The presence of e in noninitial syllables, as a kind of overshort schwa-like vowel and the use of diphthongs in positions where the Kalmyk spoken tongue has long vowels are the traces of the written language. A detailed analysis of the linguistic and possible dialectological features of Bálint's texts will be elaborated upon in a separate study. CONTENTS OF THE MANUSCRIPT 5 8 Some remarks must precede the presentation of the detailed content of Bálint's 184 pages Kalmyk material. Concerning the matter of the records it appears striking that no fragments of the famous Kalmyk 5 3 Báliint: Jelentése. 5 4 Szentkatolnai Bálint Gábor önéletrajzi naplótöredéke, p. 38. On the later publication of some texts from his Kalmyk Manuscript cf. the Introduction to the Grammar and in detail the introduction to particular text groups in the present volume 5 5 Nagy: G. Bálint's Journey, pp. 320-324. 5 6 "In non-initial syllables, original short vowels disappear, or are strongly reduced (retaining no phonemically relevant qualitative oppositions) ..." Biasing, Uwe: Kalmuck. In: The Mongolic Languages. (Routledge Language Family Series) Ed Juha Janhunen. London - New York, Routledge 2003. pp. 229-247, on pp. 229-247. In detail: Street, John C.: The schwa in Kalmyk. In: American Studies in Altaic Linguistics (1962) pp. 263-291. 5 7 The i in the second syllable appears merely in the palatalisation of the consonants, cf. the above example. 5 8 Cf. also the Preface to the Grammar, p. Ill (p. 4). 16
